Projects aim to reduce runoff into Green Bay

Wisconsin farmers have been asked to participate in studies aimed at reducing phosphorus runoff blamed for a growing dead zone in Green Bay.

The area is called a dead zone because the water no longer contains enough oxygen to support fish and other living organisms. The situation is reversible, but fixing it could take 20 or more years, according to Green Bay Press-Gazette Media.

Farms have been required for years to have plans aimed at reducing phosphorus and other runoff. Two new, five-year projects will be launched in the spring to test and assess various techniques.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Great Lakes Commission plan a $1 million project in which a handful of farmers will experiment with ways to reduce phosphorus runoff and share what they learn with others.

NEW Water, which is part of the Green Bay sewerage district, and Oneida Tribe of Indians plan a second project aimed at identifying the most cost-effective way of reducing phosphorus. It will target Silver Creek, an area of the watershed surrounded in large part by land owned by the tribe.

"We're looking at the whole water shed. How effective can we be and at what cost?" said Bill Hafs, director of environmental programs at NEW Water.

The study also will look at the effect on farms, which Hafs said are responsible for more than half of the phosphorus in the Fox River and lower Green Bay.

"For example, if the plan calls for converting a strip of land to grass as a buffer, what is the cost of the loss of that land to production?" Hafs said.